Former News Of The World journalists Jules Stenson and Neil Wallis are to be charged with phone hacking, prosecutors have confirmed.

Ex-deputy editor Wallis and Stenson, who was the features editor, will face Westminster Magistrates Court on August 21.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the decision to charge the pair came after new evidence was provided in June.

Both men are accused of conspiring to illegally listen to voicemails between January 2003 and January 2007.

Gregor McGill, a senior lawyer at the CPS, said: "The CPS has authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Jules Stenson, former features editor of the News of the World, and to summons Neil Wallis, former deputy editor of the News of the World, with an offence of conspiracy to intercept communications in the course of their transmission, commonly known as 'phone hacking'.

"These decisions were taken in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and the DPP's guidelines on the public interest in cases affecting the media.

"We have decided there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that a prosecution is in the public interest."

Six other journalists who were also held as part of the inquiry have already been told they will face no further action.